Obama embraces health care law after court ruling

FILE - In this March 23, 2010, file photo, President Barack Obama reacts to cheers as he and Vice President Joe Biden arrive in the East Room of the White House in Washington, for the signing ceremony for the health care bill. Obama, emboldened by the Supreme Court's affirmation of his health care overhaul, is embracing the sweeping federal mandate while campaign, while Republican rival Mitt Romney inches away from the issue.

President Barack Obama has been emboldened by the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the health law, and he's now embracing it while campaigning, just as Republican rival Mitt Romney steps back from it.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, emboldened by the Supreme Court's affirmation of his health care overhaul, is now embracing the law while campaigning for re-election, just as Republican rival Mitt Romney steps back from it.

Obama sees a second chance to sell voters on the issue despite deep skepticism about it from many people. Romney is avoiding answering hard questions about how he would tackle health care, and thus missing the chance to energize voters who oppose the law.

Democrats say the president always planned to stress health care if the court upheld the law. A month after the ruling, he and his team are focused on promoting individual parts of the law that have proved more popular than the sum. The campaign is targeting its efforts on important groups of voters, including women and Hispanics, who, Obama aides say, will benefit greatly once the law takes full effect.

Before the decision, Obama did mention the law in campaign events. But the case he made to voters was hardly vigorous, especially considering the amount of time he dedicated to overhaul during his first year in year in office.

The primary focus of his campaign speeches remains the economy, the race's dominant issue. But the Supreme Court's favorable ruling appears to have freed Obama to speak about the health law more passionately and emphatically than before the case was decided.

His campaign also is running a television advertisement in eight of the most contested states that criticizes Romney for opposing mandatory health insurance coverage for contraception; that provision is in Obama's overhaul. A health care-focused Spanish-language ad is running in Nevada, Colorado and Florida.

"The Supreme Court has spoken," Obama told a cheering crowd at a recent fundraiser in New Orleans. "We are going to implement this law."

During an event near Seattle, Obama said passing the law was "the right thing to do" and he highlighted specific parts of the overhaul that his campaign believes resonate well with voters.

"Young people will be able to stay on their parents' plans till they're 26 years old," Obama said. "Women won't be getting charged more than men, and you'll be getting free preventive care. Seniors will see the cost of their prescription drugs go down. If you don't have health insurance we're going to help you get it."

His campaign has been aggressive in selling the health overhaul to women.

During a speech to female bloggers Thursday, the president said he's "not going to give any ground to those who would deny women their own health care choices."

Romney, who declared the overhaul a "bad law" after the court ruled, has become less aggressive and less expansive in his discussion of health care.

At some recent events, Romney hasn't talked about the issue at all. On Friday, while campaigning in Las Vegas, he made one brief mention of "Obamacare", pledging to get rid of it and return health care "to a setting of personal responsibility."

Romney hasn't featured health care prominently in any television ads since the ruling June 28, but has made a few high-profile comments. The Republican was booed repeatedly during a July speech to the NAACP when he pledged to repeal the law if elected.

He "has and will continue to discuss the president's failures on health care," Romney spokeswoman Amanda Henneberg said, adding that the candidate "will deliver a new direction and will take action to repeal and replace Obamacare."

In a deadlocked race, Romney is hampered by his support for a health care measure similar to Obama's while he was Massachusetts governor. Also, Romney's calls for repeal raise complex questions about what he would do in place of the law; those are questions Romney has struggled to answer.

Popular Comments

President Obama will be remembered for many beneficial historical things, one
being policies put into place to insure that all American citizens will have
health insurance. Mitt Romney will be remembered for one of the things he
did as a state
More..

6:40 p.m. Aug. 5, 2012

Top comment

A voice of Reason

Salt Lake City, UT

Healthcare is affordable to anyone who's willing to work for it, nulti- or
mega- millionaire or not.

9:56 p.m. Aug. 5, 2012

Top comment

worf

Mcallen, TX

Making the workers pay for the softies is un-American.

With the Obama
term, America is transforming into a nation of beggars and whiners.
Bwaaah!-Romney is rich. Not fair. Bwaah.